Deficiency of Heart Blood
This is a Chinese medicine diagnosis and needs a note of explanation. As mentioned above, the spirit is said to reside in the Heart Blood during the night. The Heart Blood acts as an 'anchor' for the spirit, to prevent it from wandering around at night. If the 'anchor' is not strong enough then the spirit is free to roam and this results in sleeping difficulties. In this case acupuncture aims to strengthen the Heart Blood and give the spirit a stable residence at night. This may sound confusing, but the Chinese have a very different way of looking at the body compared with ourselves in the West. Their knowledge is the accumulation of over 2000 years of observation and clinical application.Disturbed Shen
In the introduction I mentioned about excessive visual stimulation leading to sleeping problems. If our mind (the Shen - the same word which is used for 'spirit') is overactive then sleeping problems can occur. This can happen if our lives are full of mental activities & processes and we find it difficult to switch off at night. Our mind races and sleep does not come easily.Sleep problems can also develop from shift work. I recently treated a patient who had difficulty sleeping after changing his job. He used to do shift work and then changed to a regular day job and that was when his sleeping difficulties started. After five acupuncture treatments he was back to a normal sleep pattern.
(published with permission in writing from:http://www.gloucesteracupuncture.co.uk)
